This retrospective from American Songwriter revisits the Rolling Stones' 1973 album Goats Head Soup, which followed an extraordinary run of four acclaimed records — Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St. — and marked the point at which the band's creative momentum began to slow. It matters as a piece of music history because it explains how even one of rock's most celebrated bands inevitably came down from a remarkable peak, with tax exile, heavy drug use and a reliance on session musicians all contributing to a less inspired record.

The album was recorded in various locations, including Jamaica, with bassist Bill Wyman absent from all but three tracks, yet it still topped album charts in several countries including the US, powered by the number one single "Angie" and the funk-tinged "Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)". Despite this commercial success, many of the album's other tracks, such as "Can You Hear the Music", were seen as lacklustre, and the piece argues that a post-Exile "what do we do now" malaise affected the band's output until 1978's Some Girls reinvigorated them.